Good Theater leaving its longtime home on Munjoy Hill

The Parish Hall Theater, where Good Theater has been based since 2002, beside the future expansion site of The Hill Arts on Congress Street in Portland. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Good Theater is leaving the Munjoy Hill venue where it’s been based for 21 seasons and is facing an uncertain future.

The professional theater company’s departure is being prompted by a major renovation and programming expansion planned for The Hill Arts on Congress Street in Portland, formerly St. Lawrence Arts Center. Good Theater has been based at the organization’s approximately 100-seat Parish Hall Theater since the fall of 2002.

The company’s last scheduled show at the theater will be a performance of “A Man of No Importance” on March 24. No venue has been lined up for next season yet, said Brian P. Allen, Good Theater’s executive and artistic director. The company usually puts on four to seven productions a season – roughly from October to April – with each running at least three weeks.

“We have feelers out and have looked at other theaters’ calendars, but we need a good chunk of time each season,” Allen said Monday. “We could take a season off and still be viable, I think. We’ll just keep talking to people and see what can be done, see how creative we might need to get.”

Good Theater patrons and local actors have been saddened by news that the company will be leaving its longtime home, and Monday several lamented the void it would leave in the Portland theater scene if it closed for good.

“I feel like it will leave such a hole if this institution were to go away,” said Gina Mitgang, 71, of Cape Elizabeth, who has been going to productions since 2016. “It’s always an uplifting experience to see something there.”

Allen said he was told in September of 2022 that The Hill Arts would not host a theater company for a whole season once the organization’s new 400-seat venue, part of a long-planned expansion, was open. Then in January, he was told that ground would be broken this year on the new venue. Construction is estimated to take about 15 months to complete.

The Hill Arts offered Good Theater the opportunity to stay at the Parish Hall Theater for one more season while construction was taking place, said Julia Kirby, development director for the arts organization. Allen declined because he felt construction at the site would deter older patrons.

Kirby said The Hill Arts management hoped that Good Theater would continue to do some shows in the new 400-seat theater once it opens, as part of a mix of entertainment offerings. As one of the city’s conditions on the renovation, the Parish Hall Theater and the new venue will not be able to hold performances at the same time.

VARIETY OF ENTERTAINMENT PLANNED

Kirby said The Hill Arts decided not to have a resident theater company at the expanded venue because it would limit the dates on its calendar that it could offer the wide variety of entertainment planned.

“It doesn’t make sense to have a 400-seat theater and have only one organization use it 80% of the time,” Kirby said. “We are disappointed Good Theater won’t be coming back for another season, and we had hoped they’d do shows (in the new space), too.”

The arts organization hopes the size of the new venue, 400 seats, will fill a void in the city for both local and national performers and groups, Kirby said. The city has several venues with 200 or fewer seats and larger venues with 1,000 or more seats, like the State Theatre and Merrill Auditorium, but not much in between. The arts organization expects the larger venue to host opera, classical and chamber music performances, dance and touring national pop music acts, Kirby said.

400 SEATS TOO BIG

Allen didn’t think Good Theater shows would do well in a 400-seat venue for shorter periods. Currently, Good Theater shows build a word-of-mouth reputation during a three-week run and over the course of a season in a 100-seat venue, Allen said. He’s not sure they would continue to nearly fill the house in a bigger venue with fewer dates.

The new arts venue is planned for the site of the former St. Lawrence Church on Munjoy Hill, built in 1897 and torn down in 2008. In 1993, the property was bought by Deirdre Nice, who’s now executive and artistic director of The Hill Arts. A nonprofit group was formed a few years later to take ownership of the property and create an arts venue. The Parish Hall Theater was left standing and continued as a performance venue.

Allen said he has known about the planned expansion since 2002, but so much time had lapsed, he started to think that maybe it wouldn’t happen. After finding out in January that ground would be broken sometime this year – Kirby said no firm date has been announced – he started to look at options for continuing Good Theater’s operation and reaching out to other venues.

The cast of Good Theater’s “A Man of No Importance,” the company’s last show at The Hill Arts. Photo by Hannah Daly/courtesy of Good Theater

Allen told audience members about Good Theater’s pending departure last week during performances of “A Man of No Importance,” which opened Feb. 28. The show before that was the comedy “One Man, Two Guvnors,” starring Maine actor Dustin Tucker. At the same time he was in the Good Theater play, Tucker could be seen in small roles in two Oscar-nominated films, “The Holdovers” and “American Fiction.”

Good Theater currently pays $50,000 a season in rent to The Hill Arts and has stayed financially viable through ticket sales, subscriptions and donations, Allen said. The company has 1,000 subscribers, and its total audience ranges from 10,000 to 12,000 people each year. Allen said the company usually employs about 40 local actors a year, paying $20 to $25 an hour, including rehearsal time.

‘WE’RE LIKE A FAMILY’

Lynne McGhee, a producer and actor who has worked with Good Theater for about 20 years and been in more than a dozen productions, said it’s only one of a handful of professional companies in the area where local actors can work. She said she’s grateful to have a place to work locally and appreciates “the great team” of people who run Good Theater, including Allen and company co-founder and production manager Stephen Underwood.

Good Theater co-founders Steve Underwood, left, and Brian P. Allen at the Munjoy Hill venue in 2022. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

“I think what I’d miss is the people the most. We’re like a family. There’s been people I’ve been working with there for 15 to 20 years and all the new people I’ve met there,” said McGhee. “It’s a great place to work for actors, with a very supportive and loyal base of patrons.”

Rick Barkhuff, of Cape Elizabeth, who attended Saturday’s performance of “A Man of No Importance,” said he’s been going to Good Theater shows for at least five years, usually three times a year. He enjoys the intimate feel of the space and the productions and is disappointed to hear that Good Theater’s time in its current venue is over.

“We won’t be able to experience what we did today,” said Barkhuff. “It’s just a small intimate theater that has always had really good productions.”

Staff Writer Lana Cohen contributed to this report.